Archive for August, 2010

Blackcurrants ago-go at the moment, at home and at the cafe, with two amazing Kenyan coffees!

Last week I had some ‘issues’ with Miroroma at the cafe (who knows why, but I wasn’t exactly 100% happy with it, even though I knew how good it could be). Today though, I had it on for our espresso for the day again, and it was SO GOOD, all day – wow! Such an exciting espresso, with such a distinct blackcurrant taste. Shots are like hot, sweet, blackcurrant juice, and it works really well as a macchiato too (although it might just be I like less milk – there have been great reports about in lattes too!).

It’ll hopefully be back for another day next week, and in between time, I am eagerly awaiting the return of probably my favourite blend – Caffe Naturelle, which I have gone without for several weeks, because Bold Red has been so captivating.

At home with the V60, Karimikui has been delicious as well – another coffee with blackcurrant notes (…although there’s so much more to it than that, I think!).

Wow. In home pourover news, just managed to brew my best cup yet of Kenyan Karimikui coffee upon arriving home this evening – and with excitement and relief I have now experienced what I’ve been looking for in this wonderful coffee!! I’ve been a little perplexed at times with my new Hario V60, which has become my main brewer at home recently, but have continued to persevere and experiment with it, as the results can be stunning. There are just so many ways to brew with this device, and so many theories as to what technique works best, before you even bring each different coffee (and its freshness) into play. I have so far struggled to really get the Karimikui shining as bright as I knew it could, but the cup this evening was great – sweet, complex, clean, developed, balanced, aromatic, citrus, soft stone fruits, apple, and gentle blackcurrant.

I brewed at setting ’27’ on my rocky (a meaningless number, but well towards the coarser side of medium, I guess, but still not near French press). I brewed for 3 minutes 20 seconds at a starting point of about 92-3C, keeping the brew very low in the cone, with lots of little pours. 16g grounds and 222g in the cup = brew ratio of 72g/l. A bit high, perhaps, but not unreasonably so. A combination of elements arrived at over the last week or so finally resulted in a very exciting and delicious cup! Thankfully this coffee is on my current seasonal coffee menu at the cafe right now for cafetiere. In all honesty our filter grinder at work (and perhaps the brew method?) may not do the coffee this same degree of justice… But it is a beautiful coffee!

In more silly news, we were having some fun with mouth-pour latte art at the cafe today! One of our best baristas has been watching some videos online recently and looking to diversify his pours. I mentioned the infamous ‘latte art in strange places’ phenomenon, and this mouth-pour. Naturally this led to a couple of hilarious attempts at the same with the whole plan crew enthusiastically involved! Heads tipped back, shots into mouths, just-warm microfoam poured in …milk overflowing down into ears and noses – ridiculous, unpleasant, and not a good rosetta in sight – but all good fun! Well done all!

In espresso at the cafe news, Kenyan Miroroma has been making guerrilla appearances, here and there, and will continue to do so for the next couple of weeks (it has been very much enjoyed by visiting celebrities, and also famously described as ‘orgasmic’!). When will it be back? Can’t say definitely – that’s the nature of really fresh coffee (it depends a little on how the usage flows as to exactly which day I end up putting it on) – you just have to be in it to win it..!

In more surprising news, my favorite Bold Red espresso shot of the day (amongst the daily back-and-forth dance of ‘is it tasting good?’ ‘is it tasting bad?’ ‘what’s going on?!’)? Not a naked double, but a spouted single?! Yes!